Chapter 42
Forty-Two
Kilia was right. Something was going on.
The harbor was bustling with activity beneath the early-morning sun, and as we sailed up beside Ivren’s ship, where he, Rakkel, Geord, and their iron-bound were disembarking, Ivren’s mother and my own, Adrion’s father, and Rakkel’s mother all stood on the dock.
Nerves fluttered in my gut, but I was glad to see that everyone seemed to have survived Gravsgard, although it looked like everyone on Ivren’s ship was as tired and beaten as we were.
“What is this?” Ottoh mumbled.
“I don’t know,” I replied. “But it can’t be good.”
“Shocking that our mother isn’t here,” Vero drawled.
“Truly.” Ottoh ironically straightened his back. “She loves to put herself in danger.”
Darcke’s finger tickled my side, and my cheeks burned when my mother glared at us, disapproval already thinning her lips. “If only she knew,” Darcke whispered into my ear, and I forced a smile across my face while I stomped on his foot.
Ilse touched my arm. “How are you doing?”
I shrugged. “I’m not cold anymore.”
A silent laugh bounced between Darcke and me, and I nudged him away with my elbow. I hoped that whatever was happening now would be over quickly, though. I wouldn’t mind staying on this ship for one more night. Or forever.
Darcke shot me a strange look at the last thought, and I busied myself with getting onto the railing. When we passed Envis, I jumped off his ship and landed with a thud on her gilded deck.
“Hi,” I whispered as she buzzed to life.
Water sloshed up the hull as she shifted in welcome, and I laughed when Envis slammed open the door leading down to the modest two-person quarters beneath my feet.
“We can stay here too,” I said quietly as Darcke and Ottoh fastened his ship. “He’ll just have to get used to your lower ceilings.”
Envis lifted her bow and slammed it down again, sending a spray of water over the group on Darcke’s ship as she did it and earning us several shouts of protest and a dark glare from my wet second.
“I don’t know if that’s going to make him more amenable,” I said teasingly.
I kept my hand on the railing as I walked around the deck, making sure that Envis was all right and also buying myself time. As soon as my boots touched the planks of the dock, any lingering warmth within me would fade like the summer wind softly shivering through the sails.
On my second lap, my mother’s voice rose above the rest. “Are you ever going to get down, or do you intend to keep us waiting all day?”
“I’d make you wait all day for the rest of my own days if I could,” I muttered, making Envis tremble in her version of laughter. But as the other heirs turned my way, Ivren and Rakkel bearing identical pale worried expressions and even Geord’s face all harsh lines, I made my way off.
Viljan gave me a tip of his head as I passed him, and I made myself whisper, “Thank you for the heads-up back there,” before I reached the heirs and the chiefs.
My mother nodded to my sword. “That looks like a strong blade.”
Don’t sound so surprised, I wanted to say, but I managed to find a shred of willpower somewhere deep inside me, enough not to cause another scene. So I only gave her a small bow. “Yes, it’s worked out so far.”
“She saved our lives with it,” Ottoh said. “Vero’s and mine.”
My mother rudely ignored him, and an awkward silence built across the dock.
Darcke moved closer when he sensed my unease, but when Seindra’s neck twitched his way, I waved him off behind my back, and thankfully he listened.
Even if he was hovering only twenty or so feet away, looking distractingly handsome as he leaned against his dark ship, the sun’s rays making his hair shine golden.
Finally, Ivren’s mother stepped forward, her soft voice a rushing stream in summer as it filled the space. “We’ve heard of the attacks here on Nordoen,” she said. “I’m glad you are all safe.”
“There was another one,” I said. “They found us on Gravsgard.”
No shock flashed across her face at the revelation.
“I sent word,” Ivren said, giving an angry shrug as if he had to defend himself. “They’re happening every day now, and we need to do something.”
As if I wasn’t as frustrated as he was with the king’s mess.
“Yes.” The Solsken chief gave her son a stern look.
“Their ships have been spotted. They’re on an island not far away from here.
Our king is sending you five to deal with them before you go to the gods.
A final challenge, if you will.” She moved her gray-streaked raven hair over a shoulder.
“King Gustief and his men will meet you after.”
Worry crawled across my skin, pulling at my shoulders.
I wasn’t sure what made me more anxious: the king sending us five into battle by ourselves, facing enemies his men couldn’t even keep away, or facing the gods.
The dock squeaked when I shifted my weight.
The gods. Definitely the gods. I knew we’d face them soon, but I needed more time. I needed to prepare. Not that I knew there would even be an opportunity for me to convince them if they’d already made up their minds about me, but I had to at least try.
“What?” Geord stepped forward. “This is not what I signed up for. We have passed the challenges of wood and steel, and we’re supposed to get our runes now. Not go out on a fucking suicide mission.”
“These are not our orders,” my mother replied. “It’s the king’s wish.”
“To risk our lives again?” Ivren’s face flushed. “We’ve only just returned.”
“Why isn’t he sending some of his own guards?” Ottoh demanded.
Rakkel didn’t speak, but she twisted her hair so violently her mother had to place a hand on her daughter’s to stop knots from forming.
Darcke’s presence was a shadow chasing me through the night, heavy and lethal. When he came up behind me, he wasn’t the only second. Viljan’s composure was broken when he took up the spot beside Ivren, and so was Stefen’s as he placed a hand on Rakkel’s shoulder.
Worried looks were traded between the heirs, and unspoken words spilled like blood onto the dock. Everything we wanted to say and everything we couldn’t was swallowed by the waves crashing against the ships around us.
“What are the orders?” Darcke said through his teeth, his fury as untamed as Ivren’s.
“The king wishes for the heirs to take a ship and ambush them. There aren’t many, but the orders are to kill them all,” Chief Solsken said.
“Does he now?” Darcke challenged.
“Darcke,” I hissed when my mother’s eyes went wide.
It was one thing for us to hold silent conversations about the man who ruled us all—ones we could pretend had never happened—but disrespecting the king before several of his chiefs?
A death sentence. Even if none of them seemed particularly eager to send their children on this mission, offering up their blood when we were so close to earning our runes and our spot as commanders at the Hird.
Perhaps with the exception of Seindra Sweengard.
“I guess this is what we’ve trained for,” I said, trying to quell Darcke’s vicious emotions, which barreled into me so hard I struggled to draw regular breaths.
We will get him, I tried to communicate with a pointed look over my shoulder. Darcke refused to acknowledge it, his tense body turned to the chiefs as if he contemplated attacking them for passing along the king’s orders.
A leaden silence followed.
“You are to leave immediately,” Ivren’s mother said after sharing a long look with her son. “You may take my—”
“My ship is ready,” Darcke interrupted. “She’s right here, and we can sail now.”
I turned my head down so the fear over how he addressed these people wouldn’t show. If I was going to find a way to save him, it would help if he didn’t get himself murdered by one of the chiefs or their spouses first.
“I don’t think—” my mother started, but it was Ivren’s turn to interrupt.
“That sounds perfect.” He waved toward the longhouse and the tents where a crowd had gathered before he spun on his heel. “I hope the king has other heirs in mind, because at some point our luck is bound to run out.”
“Ivren—” His mother tried for a smile when her son stormed off.
“Well.” She clasped her hands as she turned to me, Ottoh, and Geord.
Rakkel had moved to the side, holding an urgent, whispered conversation with her mother.
“I’m sure you will all be fine. You’ve only lost one heir this year so far, which is very impressive. ”
Ottoh scoffed under his breath, and I could only agree.
That wasn’t the most encouraging speech as we got ready both to fight enemies we wouldn’t have if the king hadn’t forced us to expand his borders until his kingdom was the largest in all the realm, and to be presented to the gods to see if we’d earned their runes.
I turned to Kilia and Ilse, who were talking with Fedic and Ottoh’s iron-bound, but before I could call for them, my mother placed a cold hand on my shoulder. “Your third and fourth are to stay here.”
“Why?” I demanded. “Isn’t it better if there are more of us? Less risk?”
“I’m sure they have their reasons,” Darcke said snarkily.
My mother gave Darcke a look that would have made a lesser man cower. “You’re not bonded with them yet. They will not be welcome into the gods’ halls if they call before you return. Besides, fewer of you allows for an element of surprise.”
Darcke’s low laugh was so menacing my rib cage tightened.
“Let’s go,” he said. “I don’t like people on my ship when I’m not there.”
I hesitated for a second, but when my mother only turned and Geord, Rakkel, and Ottoh followed my second, I started walking as well.
I guessed this was how it was going to be from now on.
Darcke’s ship was quiet when we sailed out of the harbor again. There was none of the cautious excitement that traveled over the sea before the last trial, nor any poor jokes about cursed islands or blades or glory.